Jacqui Parker is an amazing talent: playwright, director, actor, and Founder of “Our Place” Theater Company. Her company produced the African American Theater Festival, which was originally performed at the Boston Center for the Arts. Her plays were written by up-and-coming playwrights, which helped them go on to do larger productions. She was, and still is, important for the heritage and ethnicity of African Americans, especially in the Boston area. Theater is telling a story, and that’s what we do; only our stories are real.
On July 9th, 2016, I attended a reading of “My Jeannie Don’t Sing No Mo',” a play written and directed by Jacqui Parker that will be in full production in 2017. This play captures who Jacqui Parker is, where she comes from, and where her plays originate. The play is about a young lady, Jeannie herself, and her family. Throughout the reading, the question is -- why doesn’t Jeannie sing anymore? Ms. Parker is about rhythm, culture, history, and most of all, family roots, and that’s what this play is about.
I sincerely thank Hibernian Hall and Dillon Buston, Artistic Director, for giving this amazing artist a home. As Jacqui says, she looks out her window every day, and she sees people of color and the looks on their faces. She sees the wisdom, culture, and guidance there, but it isn’t coming out. Stories aren’t being told like they used to be. Jacqui uses that wisdom to write her plays.